Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Greater Manchester Police to reduce response times in north Greater Manchester.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the response given to UIN 31037 on 28th February 2025.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people into work in (a) north Greater Manchester and (b) Heywood and Middleton North constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Those who are economically inactive due to ill health or other disadvantages will be supported into work through the inactivity trailblazer programme. Additionally, Greater Manchester’s Working Well programme offers support to residents at risk of or currently experiencing long-term unemployment, their WorkWell service offers support to residents facing difficulties in remaining in work due to ill-health, and the Adult Skills Fund gives residents access to training courses to enhance their career opportunities. These programmes cover north Greater Manchester, including Rochdale.
The local Jobcentre network offers a suite of skills courses aimed at improving engagement and motivation, supporting the hardest to help, removing barriers to employment, enhancing job search skills, providing skills for work, vocational skills, and in-work support. These courses are designed to address various needs, from overcoming complex barriers to employment to improving job searching techniques and providing ongoing support for those in work. This approach allows us to provide intensive support for those with complex needs, remove final barriers to employment, and help individuals become proficient in job searching techniques. We are confident that these initiatives significantly contribute to improving employment opportunities and supporting residents in North Greater Manchester, Heywood and Middleton North constituency.
Jobcentre teams are working in partnership with Rochdale Local Authority with a specific focus on employer activity to support local residents into employment. In recent months the Jobcentre team have worked jointly with Rochdale AFC to deliver a Jobs Fair for local residents. Some recent Sector Based Work Academies include working jointly with Rochdale Training to move residents into NHS jobs and Realise Training to support residents into the Security sector. Locally, the Get Rochdale Working team at the Local Authority support with local initiatives including Jobs fairs, Apprenticeships, Work experience and volunteering.
Within the Jobcentres there is a Movement to Work Offer providing meaningful placements to young people 16-30 years old not currently in education, employment or training (NEET). These placements are designed to provide skills, experience and support to open lasting opportunities for those involved.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training in north Greater Manchester.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of our plan to Get Britain Working, we will launch a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The Youth Guarantee will build upon and enhance existing entitlements and provisions with the aim of tackling the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training.
DWP currently provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners.
For example, Positive Steps, a charitable organisation provides drop-in sessions with Jobcentre colleagues in Heywood library every Tuesday, and at the Lighthouse project every Thursday afternoon for our Middleton customers. Positive Steps are also currently running the Engaging Rochdale project throughout the whole borough, which is proving successful, offering 12 weeks paid work.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she is taking steps to prioritise areas of high economic inactivity in north Greater Manchester through the inactivity trailblazer programme.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All local authorities in Greater Manchester, including Rochdale, Wigan, Bolton, and Bury, will be involved in implementing an Economic Inactivity Trailblazer. Greater Manchester will receive £10 million in funding in 2025/26 to take steps towards reducing high economic inactivity. This funding will enable Greater Manchester to integrate work, health and skills support at the local level. Greater Manchester has designed their Economic Inactivity Trailblazer working with local authorities and partners, and will determine how to use the trailblazer funding to tackle high economic inactivity in their area.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to help promote maritime tourism for both (a) ferry and (b) cruise markets.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The UK is a leading hub for the global cruise industry, with ports such as Southampton, Dover, Greenock and Liverpool welcoming more than 3 million passengers annually.
The Department regularly engages with a range of stakeholders across the tourism sector, including the cruise industry, to understand their perspectives and challenges. As an example, the Cruise Lines International Association is a member of the Government’s Visitor Economy Advisory Council to ensure that we maximise the potential of maritime tourism to deliver growth. DCMS remains committed to maximising the benefits of cruise and ferry tourism for the UK, noting the sector’s significant contribution to the UK economy.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure families from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to high quality childcare provision.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give children the best start in life. Low-income families, children with education, health and care plans and looked after children are eligible for 15 hours funded early education from age two until they start school. In addition to this, eligible disadvantaged children can get early years pupil premium (EYPP). This additional funding supports the delivery of high quality early education that improves disadvantaged children’s outcomes. In December 2024, the department announced an unprecedented 45% increase to EYPP from 1 April 2025.
Support for disadvantaged children is also reflected when distributing core funding for the entitlements. The early years national funding formulae (EYNFFs) are used to determine the hourly rates to fund individual local authorities for early years entitlements. The EYNFFs target funding to local authorities where it is needed most and each include an additional needs factor that accounts for 10.5% of entitlement funding. This needs factor comprises of an 8% deprivation factor, a 1.5% English as an additional language factor and a 1% Disability Allowance factor. Local authorities are responsible for setting individual provider funding rates in consultation with their providers and schools forum, and fund providers using their own local funding formula, which may include a deprivation supplement.
Local authorities are required by legislation to provide sufficient childcare places for children in their local area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. If a parent is unable to secure a place, they should contact their local authority.
The department is also supporting the creation of new places. School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s opportunity mission, delivering on our Plan for Change by expanding high quality early education across England. We have awarded 300 primary-phase schools £37 million to repurpose spare space for new or expanded nursery provision, opening from September 2025, to support the expansion of childcare entitlements. School-based nurseries are particularly well-placed to support families in disadvantaged areas, with over a quarter of providers in the most deprived areas based in schools. For the school-based nurseries grant, applications for the grant were scored more highly if they clearly evidenced a focus on supporting children from disadvantaged families. This was validated using departmental data relating to established disadvantaged factors.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to mitigate rail congestion across East-West rail lines in the north of England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline portfolio contains some of the most transformative and important programmes in the country such as the TransPennine Route Upgrade, which will increase capacity and improve reliability of East to West rail lines in the north of England.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to target additional judicial resources toward court settings which are at capacity in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are continuing to invest in judicial recruitment nationally, across all jurisdictions, with plans to recruit around 1000 judges and tribunal members in 2025-26; and around 2,000 magistrates in 2025-26, and annually thereafter. Following recruitment, regional and court level deployment decisions are a matter for the judiciary, and we support actions to flexibly deploy judges to maximise capacity where it is needed.
Our assessment is that overall there is currently sufficient judicial capacity in the courts in the North West, including Greater Manchester. Any vacancies which may arise as a result of departures are expected to be filled through planned recruitment.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the deliverability of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As announced in the Autumn 2024 Budget, we are maintaining momentum on Northern Powerhouse Rail by progressing planning and design works to support future delivery. This improved rail connectivity in the north is a vital step towards better linking people and jobs, creating opportunities for everyone and we will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure the resilience of critical transport infrastructure in the north of England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government is committed to ensuring the resilience of the transport network across the UK, including vital services in the North of England. We work closely with transport operators to prevent and respond to the range of risks the sector faces: and aid them in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing contingency planning arrangements.
Transport related risks to resilience are kept under review, including through the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment, and the external-facing version, the National Risk Register, to ensure that we effectively plan at the national and local levels. This includes risks around adverse weather conditions, security threats and accidents.
We are also conducting a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) review to support our work, building our understanding of the CNI landscape and the wide variety of systems, dependencies and redundancies that keep it running. This work is strengthening our ability to plan against risks and threats and bolster our incident response capabilities, ensuring our Critical National Infrastructure is resilient and secure.